2014 World Snooker Championship

Qualifying

Former world champions Steve Davis, Mark Williams, Graeme Dott, and Peter Ebdon lost in the qualifying rounds, as did six-time runner-up Jimmy White and two-time runner-up Matthew Stevens. Ebdon's 8–10 loss to Robin Hull meant that he failed to play at the Crucible for the first time since his debut in 1992, ending his consecutive appearances at 22. Williams' 8–10 defeat by Alan McManus meant that he missed the Crucible for the first time since 1996, while Dott's 7–10 defeat by Kyren Wilson meant that he did not reach the Crucible for the first time since 1999.

For the first time, no Welsh player automatically qualified to play at the Crucible. Three Welshmen, Dominic Dale, Michael White, and Ryan Day, won places in the first round through qualification. At the age of 44, Ken Doherty defeated Dechawat Poomjaeng 10–5 in qualifying to become the oldest player to reach the Crucible that year.

First round

First round debutants at the Crucible were Kyren Wilson, Michael Wasley, Xiao Guodong, and Robbie Williams. Wilson, Xiao, and Williams lost in the first round, but Wasley reached the second round by defeating world number two Ding Junhui 10–9 in a win that was described as "one of the biggest shocks in Crucible history". Ding's first-round loss meant that he could not surpass Stephen Hendry's record of winning five ranking titles in a single season.

Ken Doherty took the last seven frames of his match against Stuart Bingham to win 10–5, recording his first victory at the Crucible since 2006. Alan McManus achieved his first Crucible win since 2005 by defeating John Higgins 10–7, while Dominic Dale won his first Crucible match since 2000 by defeating Mark Davis 10–5.

The final frame of Ricky Walden's first-round match against Kyren Wilson lasted 73 minutes 13 seconds, just under two minutes short of the Crucible record of 74 minutes 58 seconds that Stephen Maguire and Mark King set in 2009. Walden won the frame to clinch a 10–7 victory.

Having already broken Judd Trump's record of 63 century breaks in a single professional season, world number one Neil Robertson arrived at the Crucible with 93 centuries, and was aiming to become the first player to reach 100 competitive centuries in one season. In his 10–2 win over Robbie Williams, he compiled breaks of 132, 103, 140, and 102 to take his season total to 97.

Ladies' Day

On 26 April 2014, the second annual Ladies' Day at the Crucible featured events designed to encourage greater female participation in the sport. The day was also used to raise money for the World Snooker’s official charity – Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice in North Anston. The first Ladies' Day was held in 2013.

Second round

Although he was never ahead in the first two sessions, defending champion Ronnie O'Sullivan defeated Joe Perry 13–11 in the second round to reach the 16th World Championship quarter-final of his professional career. O'Sullivan described the encounter with Perry as "probably my most exciting match ever at the Crucible." Alan McManus defeated Doherty 13–8 to qualify for only his fourth quarter-final at the World Championship. This was McManus' first quarter-final appearance since 2005, when he also beat Doherty in the second round.

Dominic Dale defeated Wasley 13–4 to reach his first World Championship quarter-final since 2000. In defeating Mark Allen 13–7, Robertson added two more century breaks to bring his season total to 99. In the last two frames he made breaks of 94 and 92, narrowly missing his 100th century of the season. Barry Hawkins met Ricky Walden in a repeat of the previous year's semi-final. Hawkins defeated Walden again, this time 13–11, to reach his second Crucible quarter-final. Mark Selby defeated two-time runner-up Ali Carter 13–9.

Quarter-finals

Selby won eight of the second session's nine frames against Alan McManus, after they could only finish seven frames in the first session, and went on to win the match 13–5.

O'Sullivan won 13 of the last 14 frames to defeat Shaun Murphy 13–3, and end the match with a session to spare.

Hawkins opened up a 6–2 lead over Dominic Dale in the first session, and extended his lead to 11–5 overnight. In the final session, Dale fought back to win seven frames in a row and take the lead at 12–11, but Hawkins captured the last two frames to win the match 13–12.

Robertson trailed Judd Trump 2–6 after the first session, and 6–9 after the second, before he won seven of the last nine frames (including the last five frames) to win the match 13–11. In the 22nd frame of his quarter-final, Robertson compiled his 100th century break of the 2013/2014 season, becoming the first player in the history of snooker to achieve this feat.

Semi-finals

In the first semi-final, Ronnie O'Sullivan met Barry Hawkins in a repeat of the previous year's final, and won 17–7 to reach his sixth World Championship final. O'Sullivan became the first player in ten years to win both his quarter-final and semi-final match with a session to spare. In 2004, he achieved this feat by defeating Anthony Hamilton 13–3 and Stephen Hendry 17–4.

In the second semi-final, a match that lasted 12 hours 4 minutes, Mark Selby defeated Neil Robertson 17–15 to reach his second World Championship final. Selby had previously reached the final in 2007, when he lost to John Higgins. During the match, Robertson extended his century break record to 103, but his defeat meant that he lost his world number one position.

Final

The two-day final between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Mark Selby was refereed by Brendan Moore. This was the first time that Moore took charge of a World Championship final. In the first session on Sunday afternoon, O'Sullivan took a 5–3 lead, which he extended in the evening session to 8–3 and 10–5, before Selby took the last two frames of the day to leave O'Sullivan with a 10–7 overnight lead. O'Sullivan's highest break on the first day was 131 in the 14th frame, while Selby's highest break of the day was just 62. The third session on Monday afternoon concluded after just six of the scheduled eight frames, but Selby won five of them to go into the final session with a 12–11 lead. Selby then won three of the first four frames of the evening session, extending his lead to 15–12 at the mid-session interval, before going on to win the final 18–14 and capture his first world title. In all, Selby won 13 of the last 17 frames. The victory made Selby the ninth player to win all three Triple Crown events, and reinstated him as the world number one. This was O'Sullivan's first ever defeat in a World Championship final.

O'Sullivan said "I want to congratulate Mark on a fantastic tournament. He's been the best player over 17 days, that was tough he had me in all sorts of trouble. In the end I was numb as he was too strong and tough." Selby dedicated the title to his late father, who died two months before he turned professional.

Prize fund

The total prize money of the event was raised to £1,214,000 from the previous year's £1,111,000. The winner prize money was raised to £300,000, which was the highest winner's prize in the history of snooker. The breakdown of prize money for this year is shown below:

Main draw

Shown below are the results for each round. The numbers in parentheses beside some of the players are their seeding ranks (each championship has 16 seeds and 16 qualifiers). The draw for the first round took place on 17 April 2014, one day after the qualifying, and was broadcast live on World Snooker's YouTube channel at 12 pm BST.

Qualifying

The qualifying rounds 1–3 for the tournament took place between 8 and 13 April 2014 at the Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield, England. The final round of qualifying took place on 15 and 16 April 2014 at the same venue. The qualifying stage of the World Championship was the first snooker event held at the venue.

Qualifying stage centuries

There were 69 century breaks in the qualifying stage of the World Championship:

Televised stage centuries

There were 58 century breaks in the televised stage of the World Championship. For every century break that were made during the 17-day championship in Sheffield, the title sponsor, Dafabet, donated £100 to World Snooker’s official charity, the Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice.